Lennie James

Lennie James was born in Nottingham, but spent almost all of his formative years growing up in South London.  He attended Ernest Bevin School where he prepared for a career in sports therapy and playing rugby. His head was turned toward acting however after he followed a girlfriend into an audition and was asked to take part by the director. He is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, leaving early to start his first professional job at The Derby Playhouse Theatre. Lennie is an award-winning theatre actor and has worked in almost all the major theatres in England, including The National, The Royal Court, The Young Vic and Shakespeare’s Globe. He has also appeared on Broadway in Two Gentlemen of Verona along side Mark Rylance.

Lennie has been a star of British television since the early 1990s, starring is such series as “The Orchard House,” “Civvies,” “Comics,” “Out of the Blue,” “MI-5,” “Cold Feet,” “Buried,” “Fallout” and “The State Within.”  Lennie then came to the United States in 2006 to star opposite Skeet Ulrich in the much-loved and history-making CBS series “Jericho.”  At present, Lennie is a series regular on the hit HBO “Hung” starring Thomas Jane and Jane Adams. He can also be seen in the upcoming

AMC drama “The Walking Dead,” written and directed by Frank Darabont.
On the big screen Lennie is probably best known for his role of ‘Sol’ in the Guy Ritchie film Snatch opposite Brad Pitt, Benicio Del Toro and Jason Statham. He can also be seen in a number of other films including Sahara; Lucky Break; Among Giants; Les Miserable, opposite Geoffrey Rush, Liam Neeson and Claire Danes; and Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People.  He is currently shooting Colombiana opposite Zoe Saldana and Lockout opposite Guy Pearce.

In 2000, Storm Damage, Lennie’s first film as a writer, was screened on the BBC.  It garnered much critical acclaim and won a Royal Television Society award, a Riems Internationales award and a BAFTA award nomination in 2001. This led Lennie toward a burgeoning career as a writer for stage, screen and a sometime columnist for a number of Britain’s major newspapers.

Lennie is married with three teenaged daughters and it is here that he fulfills his most important roles as father, ATM and taxi driver to his girls. He is also a dedicated supporter of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and will one day learn to play the saxophone that he bought with his first week’s wages as a professional actor which lies under his bed. Lennie splits his time between London and Los Angeles.